{{short description|American editorial writer}} {{Infobox person | name = Brent Staples | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{bya|1951}} | birth_place = Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = | resting_place = | alma_mater = {{unbulleted list|Penn Morton College (B.A.) |University of Chicago (M.A.) and (Ph.D.)}} | occupation = The New York Times editorial writer, author }} '''Brent Staples''' (born 1951) is an American author and member of the editorial board of ''The New York Times'', where he specializes in coverage of education, criminal justice and economics.<ref name="bs">{{Cite web|url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/brent_staples/index.html|title=Brent Staples|access-date=2008-02-28|work=The New York Times}}</ref> His books include ''An American Love Story''<ref name="als">{{Cite book| title=An American Love Story| last=Staples| first=Brent|author2=Penelope Falk|author3=Jennifer Fox| year=1999| publisher=Random House| isbn=0375502998}}</ref> and ''Parallel Time: Growing up In Black and White''.<ref name="par">{{Cite book| title=Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White| last=Staples| first=Brent| year=1995| pages=[https://archive.org/details/paralleltimegrow00stap/page/288 288]| publisher=HarperCollins| isbn=0380724758| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/paralleltimegrow00stap/page/288}}</ref> He writes about political, social and cultural issues, including race<ref name="race">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/31/opinion/31mon4.html?incamp=article_popular_5|title=Why Race Isn't as 'Black' and 'White' as We Think|access-date=2008-02-28|date=2005-10-31|author=Brent Staples|work=The New York Times}}</ref> and the state of the American school system.<ref name="js1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/25/opinion/l25japan.html|title=Are Japan's Schools Really Better?|access-date=2008-02-28|date=2005-11-25|author=Editorials/Op-Ed|work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>Staples, Brent (2017-04-20). "[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/opinion/where-did-all-the-black-teachers-go.html Where Did All the Black Teachers ago?]". ''The New York Times''. Retrieved 2017-04-21.</ref>
His memoir ''Parallel Time'' was a finalist for the ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize and winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.<ref name="nyteb">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/editorial-board.html?pagewanted=print|title=The New York Times Editorial Board: Brent Staples – Education, Criminal Justice, Economics |access-date=2017-04-21|date=2016-05-02|work=The New York Times}}</ref> He won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2019 |title=2019 Pulitzer Prizes Journalism: Editorial Writing - Brent Staples of The New York Times |date=2019-04-16 |access-date=2019-04-16}}</ref> and is a fellow of the Society of American Historians.<ref name=UChicago/> He has also been a visiting fellow at several academic institutions.
==Early life and education== Staples was born in 1951 in Chester, Pennsylvania, the oldest of nine children. His parents moved from rural Virginia to Chester as part of the Second Great Migration of Southern Blacks to urban centers in the North. His father was a truck driver and his mother a homemaker. By the time Staples was in the eighth grade, his family had moved within Chester seven times, often due to their inability to pay the rent.<ref>{{cite news |last1=French |first1=Mary Ann |title=THE WRITER WHO STALKED WISDOM |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/03/17/the-writer-who-stalked-wisdom/bc105e38-30c0-4950-ad55-8ee4157663e9/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=17 September 2020}}</ref> His family had no money for tuition; his grades were average, and he had taken only a few high-level academic courses in high school. The expectation was that he would go straight to work, most likely at one of the shipyards in Chester.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Russ |first1=Valerie |title=Brent Staples talks about his path from Chester to a Pulitzer Prize |url=https://www.inquirer.com/news/brent-staples-pulitzer-editorial-writing-2019-chester-race-social-justice-philadelphia-20190422.html |website=www.inquirer.com |date=22 April 2019 |publisher=Philadelphia Inquirer |access-date=17 September 2020}}</ref>
He was convinced to attend Widener University (then known as Penn Morton College) by the only African American professor at the school as part of a program named Project Prepare. He graduated from Widener University with a B.A. degree in 1973. He was awarded two doctoral fellowships from the Danforth Foundation and the Ford Foundation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Brent Staples's Biography |url=https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/brent-staples |website=www.thehistorymakers.org |access-date=17 September 2020}}</ref> Staples received a master's degree in psychology in 1976 and a Ph.D. in the discipline in 1982 from the University of Chicago.<ref name="CBB">"Brent Staples." ''Contemporary Black Biography'', vol. 8. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 1994. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, 2017-04-21.</ref><ref>Chung, Jeanie (Fall 2015/Winter 2016). "[http://mag.uchicago.edu/law-policy-society/knowledge-through-decades Knowledge through the decades: Alumni from the past 50 years recall their experiences in the Division of the Social Sciences]". ''The University of Chicago Magazine'': ''Dialogo'' (alumni publication for the division of Social Sciences). Retrieved 2017-4-21.</ref>
In 1983, his younger brother, Blake, a cocaine dealer, was murdered by a client,<ref>{{cite web |title=Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White |url=https://www.anisfield-wolf.org/winners/parallel-time-growing-up-in-black-and-white/ |website=www.anisfield-wolf.org |access-date=17 September 2020}}</ref> which forced Staples to reconsider his own success and his inability to stop his brother's life choices.<ref>Staples, Brent. "[https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/30/magazine/about-men-a-brother-s-murder.html About Men; A Brother's Murder]". ''The New York Times'' Retrieved 2020-03-07.</ref>
==Career== Staples taught psychology at Widener University and various institutions in Chicago from 1977 to 1981, but began to pursue a separate career track in journalism. In 1983, he was hired as a science writer by the ''Chicago Sun-Times''.<ref name=UChicago/> In 1985, Staples joined the staff of ''The New York Times'' as an editor of the ''Book Review'' and subsequently became assistant metropolitan editor.<ref name="bs3">{{Cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE7D6173CF934A35755C0A966958260&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Organizations/N/New%20York%20Times,%20The|title=Brent Staples Is Appointed to Times's Editorial Board|access-date=2008-02-28|date=1990-06-07|work=The New York Times}}</ref> His essay ''"Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space"'', published in ''Ms. Magazine'' in 1986,<ref name="GrønstadVågnes2010">{{cite book|last1=Grønstad|first1=Asbjørn|last2=Vågnes|first2=Øyvind|title=Coverscaping: Discovering Album Aesthetics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GrDdb4hvVOsC&pg=PT130|access-date=8 August 2013|year=2010|publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press|isbn=9788763507745|page=130}}</ref> was so influential that it soon became required reading in numerous college courses.<ref name=UChicago/> In 1990, he was appointed to the newspaper's editorial board.<ref name="bs3"/>
In 1994, his memoir, ''Parallel Time'', was a finalist for the ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize and winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.<ref name="nyteb"/>
In a 1994 interview with Paul Galloway of the ''Chicago Tribune'',<ref>"Brent (A.) Staples." ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2005. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, 2017-04-21. Also available [http://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/staples-brent-1951 online via ''Encyclopedia.com''].</ref> Staples reflected: "Being Black enriches my experience; it doesn't define me .... I'm writing about universal themes – family and leaving home and developing your own identity – which all Americans can enjoy and understand." As a writer, he works to correct the myth that the American "Black experience" is defined only by poverty, violence, and crime.<ref name="CBB"/> In the same interview, he stated: "I despise the expression ['Black experience']. There is no such thing. Black people's lives in this country are too varied to be reduced to a single term."<ref name="CBB"/>
In 2000, Staples received an honorary doctorate degree in humane letters from Mount Saint Mary College. He has served as a visiting fellow at such institutions as the Hoover Foundation, the University of Chicago and Yale University.<ref name=UChicago/>
In 2019, Staples won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing.<ref>{{cite web |title=Brent Staples of The New York Times |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/brent-staples-new-york-times |website=www.pulitzer.org |access-date=17 September 2020}}</ref> His editorials highlighted the history of racism in the United States and were described by the Pulitzer Prize committee as being "written with extraordinary moral clarity".<ref name=UChicago>{{cite web |title=Pulitzer-winning alum's incisive editorials expose America's uncomfortable truths |url=https://news.uchicago.edu/story/pulitzer-winning-alums-incisive-editorials-expose-americas-uncomfortable-truths |website=www.news.uchicago.edu |date=25 June 2020 |access-date=17 September 2020}}</ref>
==Bibliography== *[https://www.ohlone.edu/sites/default/files/documents/imported/justwalkonbyblackmenandpublicspace.pdf Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Spaces], Ms. Magazine, 1986 *[https://books.google.com/books?id=qM4wDwAAQBAJ&q=brent+staples Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White], Pantheon Books, 1994, {{ISBN|0-679-42154-8}} *[https://books.google.com/books?id=8VivkgEACAAJ&q=brent+staples An American Love Story], Random House, 1999, {{ISBN|0-375-50299-8}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Staples, Brent}} Category:1951 births Category:20th-century African-American writers Category:20th-century American male writers Category:21st-century African-American writers Category:21st-century American male writers Category:Chicago Sun-Times people Category:Date of birth missing (living people) Category:Journalists from Pennsylvania Category:Living people Category:People from Chester, Pennsylvania Category:Writers from Delaware County, Pennsylvania Category:Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing winners Category:The New York Times editorial board Category:The New York Times journalists Category:University of Chicago alumni Category:Widener University alumni Category:Widener University faculty